Suburban 'backyard rodeos' feature steers being chased, knocked down and, at times, stripped of their tails

A man on horseback in a corral rides feverishly alongside a fleeing steer while reaching for the animal’s tail, which he quickly but skillfully wraps around his right cowboy boot while maintaining a grip on the appendage. As intended, the maneuver causes the steer to twist and tumble to the dirt. The rider — part of a “backyard rodeo” in the far northwest suburbs last summer — gallops off, holding something grotesque in his hand: part of the steer’s tail, which was ripped free. Called…